ProvenanceExample

Contents

Provenance Example

At the May 05 2011 telecon, we agreed on an example-based process to discuss charter concepts. This document presents an example with which we can illustrate all concepts. This page replaces a deprecated version that was too "technology specific".

Data Journalism Example

Outline

An online newspaper publishes a story making using of RDF data (GovData) provided through a government portal, in England. The government portal not only makes the data available but also publishes how the data was generated. The newspaper publishes a story with an incidence map and associated chart based on GovData along with a photo, supplied by a freelancer, illustrating an impacted group. The story includes in the byline both the author of the story but the creator of the chart as well. To be transparent, the newspaper publishes a document describing the provenance of the chart including where it got the data from but also what tools and assumptions it used to create the chart. This also contains a link to who created the chart. Importantly, because the GovData is in the public domain, the newspaper retains the copyright to its chart but does not own the underlying data.

A blogger looking at the chart spots what he thinks to be an error. Having retrieved the provenance, he is able to trace back the error not to the newspapers processing but an error in how the government translated the data into RDF. However, that error had been spotted and fixed by the government portal. The blogger is able to publish a new chart that is correct and gives it an open license. Thus, when searching for information on the story a user can find which figure is based on newer data.